Aiea Loop Trail is a 4.8 mile trail with 1,230 elevation gain with a rain-forest terrain and incredible mountain views.
Getting There
Located in the Keaiwa Heiau State Recreation Area in Aiea, there is plenty of parking at the start of this trail near picnic tables and restrooms. This loop trail can be hiked in either direction, and we chose to begin near the restrooms and not by the trailhead signs, as we read several reviews stating this direction was easier.
The Hiking Adventure
The Aiea Loop Trail offers a variety of rainforest terrains, beautiful lookouts of the H3 highway and Halawa Valley. Rain showers, mud, and plenty of lush trees, there was so much to see and explore on this hike. The trail took us 4.5 hours with several snack and water breaks, treasure searching breaks and photo opts.
On our trek to the top, our kids were quickly fading until my husband discovered a geocache treasure. I'll admit, I'm not usually a fan of geocaching, however it was definitely a motivator on the second half of this hike, and the whole family got involved.
I highly recommend downloading the geocaching app and incorporating geocaching searches, or "treasure hunting" as we like to call it, on your family hikes. It's a great way to keep kids motivated during longer more strenuous hikes.
Throughout a section of this hike, we discovered the B24-J Liberator Bomber plane crash site that crashed during WWII. According to online sources, on May 5, 1944 a crew departed Hickam Field on a replacement mission to Australia. Six miles after their take-off, they crashed into the Pu'u Uau Ridge Ko'olau Range. Some of the plane parts were recovered, and the remainder of the parts were left at the crash site. Such cool history located right along the trail.
This trail had plenty of awesome lookouts, areas to stop, drink some water, and take it all in! I would recommend good hiking shoes, packing rain jackets, bug spray and towels for the car, as this hike can get muddy and slippery if it rains.
Kids hiking shoes: Adidas Terrex
Check out a quick video of our hike below:
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